DISCOVER SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

 

Hand-craft has always been at the heart of what we do. Helping to sustain age-old hand-craft techniques and traditions, our beautiful new ARTISAN collection showcases truly wonderful work by skilled craftspeople across Asia.

 

WE WANT TO DO RIGHT BY THE PEOPLE

WHO MAKE OUR BEAUTIFUL THINGS.

 

We don’t run our own factories or directly employ the artisans who hand-craft and embellish our most exceptional pieces. But we do ask every single one of our suppliers to commit to the Monsoon Accessorize Code Of Conduct. It’s based on ETI standards, and aims to protect workers by setting out minimum requirements on working conditions, pay and employment rights. 

 

This is just a starting point. To us, ethical trading is all about building long-standing, sustainable relationships. Although we’ve worked with many of our suppliers for over 20 years, we never ever turn a blind eye. To ensure we drive meaningful and enduring improvements in working conditions, our response to any issue is collaborative. Wherever we find a problem, we work together to put things right. And we monitor progress through regular visits to suppliers’ factories from our own audit teams plus external experts too. If a supplier doesn’t come up to scratch within a reasonable time frame, we can and will move our business elsewhere.Our efforts don’t stop at the factory gates. They extend to the artisans and other skilled workers who help create some of our most special things – often in small local workshops or even their own homes. We require all our suppliers to ensure these craftspeople receive fair ‘piece rates’ for their wonderful work. And this is closely monitored by our ethical compliance team.

 

Working with small communities of craftspeople in faraway places is a complex process with lots of challenges. But it’s always been an important part of who we are and what we do. We’re proud to help generate incomes, sustain livelihoods and preserve age-old hand-craft techniques. 

 

Everyone who shops with us – and most especially everyone who buys something from our ARTISAN range – is enabling us to help sustain age-old traditional hand-crafts as well as the livelihoods of skilled craftspeople. 

 

But you can also help us raise funds for specific causes by shopping from our charity ranges. We’ve recently collaborated with cool and caring flip-flop label Gandys to raise money for Sri Lankan charity, EMERGE. And our link-up with jewellery designer Pippa Small supports the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Afghanistan.During our annual Charity Week, people working within our London HQ and in our stores throughout the UK are generous in their support and tireless in their efforts to raise funds for The Monsoon Accessorize Trust. We’re also sincerely grateful for the generous support of customers, suppliers and other businesses with which we work.

 

THE WORLD AROUND US

STAYING TRUE TO OUR GREEN-FINGERED ROOTS

The first Monsoon collections featured gorgeous bohemian clothes made in Indian villages using hand-loomed cotton fabrics, organic vegetable dyes and artisanal block-printing techniques. And, although we’ve grown into a global brand, we’ve never lost our concern for the environment or commitment to ethical trading. So, as well as striving to do right by the people who make our beautiful things, we work hard to reduce the environmental impact of all that we do.

 

PACKING AND WASTE

Absolutely committed to best practices in recycling and minimising waste, we’ve recently introduced rainwater harvesting and expanded recycling facilities at our Head Office in London. We’ve also dispensed with all unnecessary packaging from our products. Wherever possible, we use only FSC-certified paper and biodegradable plastic.

 

PUSHING SUSTAINABILITY INTO FASHION

As a measure of our passion for sustainable fashion, we sponsored London Fashion Week’s ESTETHICA showcase for ethical designers every season for 5 years. More recently, we’ve supported a highly creative awareness-raising collaboration between artist-designer Alex Noble’s pioneering EMG (Everything Must Go) upcycling project and SEWA, our charity partner in Delhi. We’re also working with Royal College of Art students on artisan-inspired collections. Other key projects include a 3-year initiative with Oxfam to help Indian cotton farmers convert to organic farming methods, and a scheme to help Indian fashion students develop and use sustainable fabrics.

 

SAVING ENERGY

Our Green Action Programme, augmented by the introduction of energy-efficient fittings throughout our store network, has already achieved significant reductions in our total energy consumption. But we’re not resting there. We’ve targeted ourselves to achieve a further 10% saving across all our UK operations by 2016. And we’ve pledged to minimise our use of air freight.

 

STATEMENT ON ANGORA WOOL

Following concerns raised about the treatment of angora rabbits in Chinese farms, during 2013-14, we conducted detailed audits of the farms used by our suppliers. These audits confirmed that live plucking was not used anywhere in our supply chain. Our supplier farms worked towards the 5 Freedoms of animal welfare and, in particular, freedom from hunger, thirst, pain, discomfort and distress. They took great care to ensure that the shearing process did not cause stress or injury. However, despite the above, we recognise that some of our customers still feel uncomfortable with the continued inclusion of angora in our ranges. For this reason, we have decided to end the use of angora in all future production of our clothing and accessories.

 

ANIMAL WELFARE

We operate a strict policy of zero-tolerance towards abuse and maltreatment of animals in our supply chain. We don’t use real fur. In fact, the only animal-derived materials we use (eg leather, feathers, down) are by-products of the food industry. And we take special care to ensure any luxury yarns (such as alpaca, mohair, cashmere, angora and merino) are sourced only from producers who uphold high standards in animal husbandry. No animal testing is permitted in the development or manufacture of our cosmetics or fragrances.